11 Fat-Blasting, Metabolism-Boosting, Gift-From-God Foods You Must Start Eating Immediately To Get Ripped
Posted by Michael Vacanti
Bad News: You will have to read more than headlines to derive any value from this post.
Good News: I write at a fourth grade level.
.
We’ve all seen these articles.
Best Fat Burning Food lists.
This trash, written in four minutes and SEO optomized for four hours, is intended to bait under-educated folks into providing ad revenue or buying some shitty info product to solve all their life’s problems.
Avocados. Blueberries. Whole eggs. Dark Chocolate!!!
The worst part about these lists isn’t the authors unoriginality nor is it their reliance on dumb hacks like cinnamon and spicy foods; rather, it is the complete and utter absence of the most important concepts for fat loss:
- Energy Balance
- Meal Timing
- Encouragement to eat foods you enjoy
- Convenience
- Macronutrients
- Common Sense
- Action Steps For Getting Started
Luckily, I made the dumbest bet ever and have to write one article per week.
This is what came out.
11 Foods To Eat For Fat Loss
By: Mike Vacanti
Let’s start here: “good” and “bad” foods do not exist.
One food does not make you skinny while another makes you fat; rather, you will gain weight in a calorie surplus and lose weight in a deficit.
Of course, there is a bit more to it than that, but energy balance is at the core of changes in body weight.
So, while promoting ‘super foods’ isn’t wrong, it just isn’t very helpful. You can’t live off chia seeds and raw almonds in a calorie deficit forever.
Here is the fat loss listicle that might actually help you.
.
1. Steak Dinners: Wait, steak is a good fat loss food??
Is that because of the iron? And the saturated fat that increases testosterone and leads to greater calorie expenditure?
Vegas, baby.
No, no that’s not what I meant.
This point is related to meal timing: Pretend you are trying to hit 130p, 100c, 75f on your rest day.
You can divide that between three cute little meals and three dinky snacks.
Or, you can accept the fact that TEF is driven by the quantity of calories rather than frequency of intake and practice meal timing strategies to make your day more enjoyable.
Sample Day:
1:30pm: Salad with double chicken
5:00pm: Protein shake + apple
8:00pm Giant steak dinner 🙂
Choose a meal timing strategy that fits your day and lifestyle.
.
2. ‘Bigger The Better: What’s the difference between watermelon and mango?
Both in the tropical fruit family. Both tasty. Both traditionally healthy. Both deriving all calories from carbohydrates.
But 300g of watermelon contains 90 calories.
And 300g of mango contains 180 calories.
So, for the same real estate in your stomach, you are eating half the calories when you choose watermelon.
Takeaway: rely on foods with a high volume-to-calorie ratio for maximum satiety.
.
3. Bananas: Well, it doesn’t have to be bananas.
It can be any food that has gives you a uniquely high calorie-to-satiety ratio.
Let me explain.
After a push day Gary recently asked,
How many calories are in this banana, Mike?
“110” I told him.
“Yeah. Bananas are huge for me,” G went on. “A huge win. Bananas are basically the same as a muffin for me.”
What he meant is that a 110 calorie banana gives him the illusion of fullness to the same degree a 400 calorie muffin gives him.
Find foods that give you this disproportionate appetite curbing effect, and lean on them.
For me personally, this is a salad full of free veggies.
.
4. Water: I’m sure there are studies to support the cliche “97% of the time you think you are hungry, it’s actually thirst.”
We can probably find studies that disprove those studies. And counter studies to those studies as well.
That’s kind of how internet science works, data is molded to fit a hypothesis.
So, I shall throw all data out the window of my blog post and speak in purely practical terms: When you are hungry but want to battle until your next meal, immediately chug 24 ounces of water. I promise you will be less hungry.
.
5. Ice Cream: No, I do not mean green tea extract laced froyo for a metabolic hyper boost.
My point is that you should make room for foods you enjoy.
My current favorite: Caribbean Coconut
Dieting is unsustainable for long periods of time if you have to cut out every food you like.
So, whether it’s donuts or waffles or candy corn, make a little room for foods you enjoy from time to time.
.
6. Beg For It Foods: I was going to choose a clever stock photo to accompany this innuendo.
But let’s just get into it.
Foods that “make you beg for it” are foods that take some work.
English peas, pomegranates, crab legs, nuts in a shell.
By making the process of eating require more time and effort, you may reduce the risk of overeating.
.
7. Bro-tein: Not so fast, before you write me off as a know-nothing, stringer-wearing, arm-day-programming piece of shirtless selfie instagram meat, you should know this: I have nearly all of my clients on 0.5 – 1.3g of protein per pound of body weight.
So, not “bro” level protein intake.
Just adequate intake to curb hunger, prevent muscle loss, and provide an uptick in calorie expenditure via digestion.
Closer to 0.5g grams for women without much lean body mass with quite a bit of body fat to lose.
Near 1.3g* for lean men trying to get very lean.
*One exception is an extreme ectomorph eating a massive number of calories who would prefer to eat more protein rather than carbs/fats to hit his macros. In that case, we will go over 1.3g per pound..
.
8. Mom Foods: You know, foods your mom would want you to eat.
Broccoli, carrots, apples.
The obvious stuff.
Produce is packed with fiber, which aids in digestion and nutrient absorption.
And micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) make us healthy.
I don’t think I need to say more here.
.
9. Chipotle: I eat A LOT of chipotle.
Instagram: @mikevacanti
I don’t have to do this. I could meal prep in the evenings.
I could weigh my chicken and sweet potatoes and olive oil.
I could put it in tupperware and bring it with me and eat it for lunch.
Back in the day when I lived on a couch in Harlem, I did this because money was tight.
But at this point, I value my time more than a few dollars per meal and a few % variance in accuracy of macros.
And Chipotle saves me time.
So, I opt for convenience.
Related: Are Chipotle Macros Accurate?
For you, this might mean eating at a restaurant or slamming a protein shake; make choices based on convenience to save time and increase your rate of adherence.
.
10. Chips, Cakes, & Cookies: Or, in other words, whatever you are eating before you start dieting.
Eat that very same thing tomorrow.
But do one thing differently… track everything you eat.
The proteins, carbs, and fats. Log them.
Don’t worry about hitting macros; just eat whatever you like and track it.
Because at the end of the day when you see 437c, 166f, 31p, you will have a baseline.
Then, the following day, you will think “hmm, chips are pretty high in carbs and fats, and I’m fairly low on protein.”
So, you substitute pringles for tuna and get one stop closer to your targets.
I’ve been saying this for years: the most important thing you can do to take control of your future body composition is learn how to track your macros.
.
11. Poptarts: Here, I shall pay homage to the IIFYM stereotype.
Poptarts have been dragged thru the mud as the poster-child for an exteremist subset of a very valid diet strategy.
It is time we put them where they belong: in the ranks as a top 5 processed/pre-packaged food.
Because energy balance matters.
It just does.
Yeah, obviously you shouldn’t eat exclusively poptarts and protein powder.
But to discount an ideology (iifym) based on the mascot (poptarts) paraded by a minority of extremists is… dumb. And sad. And not fair to maple brown sugar poptarts.
Reminder: you can gain body fat eating “clean” foods.
Alright, I hope this list helped you.
Who is going to leave an angry ‘these foods aren’t healthy!!” comment after only skimming the headlines.
Please let it be you!
Access To My Personal Inbox For Your Questions: Right Here
Rachel Balota
OMG getting fat off organic salads drowned in MCTS loaded with avocados almonds cashews vegan dried fruit - I liked this article already but that comment made me LOVE it. I wish more people would realise how you can get fat eating clean!!February 21, 2016 at 12:20 am |